This invention relates to a needle clamp for a household sewing machine, and more particularly, to a cost effective sewing machine needle clamp construction which will permit insertion of a household sewing machine needle in only the proper orientation therein.
Sewing machine needles which are intended for household sewing machine use conventionally include a butt extremity formed with a flat having a predetermined orientation with respect to the needle eye. The flat is not only formed perpendicular to the needle eye, but is arranged in a plane which is spaced a predetermined distance from the blade in which the needle eye is formed. Related to this needle formation is the conventional household sewing machine construction which provides the needle carrier with a corresponding flat surface against which the flat of the needle butt, if maintained, will automatically position the needle for proper cooperation with associated stitch forming mechanisms in the sewing machine. Various expedients are also known in the sewing machine art for so constricting the shape of the needle butt accommodating recess in a needle clamp that the needle can be admitted in only one way, i.e., the proper orientation. Such prior one way needle insertion clamps, however, have been catagorized by appreciable expense incident to either the requirement for separate inserts, gibs or the like, or the requirement for expensive machining operations such as broaching or the like.